fatiguing them by hanging unremittingly
on their shoulders.

I salute you with affectionate esteem and respect.

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXXXIII.*--TO BENJAMIN AUSTIN, January 9, 1816

TO BENJAMIN AUSTIN.

Monticello, January 9, 1816.

[* This letter was accidentally misplaced, and is now
inserted out of its regular order.]

Dear Sir,

I acknowledge with pleasure your letter of the 9th of December last.

Your opinions on the events which have taken place in France, are
entirely just, so far as these events are yet developed. But we
have reason to suppose, that they have not reached their ultimate
termination. There is still an awful void between the present, and what
is to be the last chapter of that history; and I fear it is to be filled
with abominations, as frightful as those which have already disgraced
it. That nation is too high-minded, has too much innate force,
intelligence, and elasticity, to remain quiet under its present
compression. Samson will arise in his strength, and probably will ere
long burst asunder the cords and the webs of the Philistines. But what
are to be the scenes of havoc and horror, and how widely they may spread
between the brethren of one family, our ignorance of the interior feuds
and antipathies of the country places beyond our view. Whatever may be
the convulsions, we cannot but indulge the pleasing hope, they will
end in the permanent establishment of a representative government;
a government in which the will of the people will be an effective
ingredient. This important element has taken root in the European mind,
and will have its growth. Their rulers, sensible of this, are already
offering this modification of their governments, under the plausible
pretence that it is a voluntary concession on their part. Had Bonaparte
used his legitimate power honestly, for the establishment and support
of a free government, France would now have been in prosperity and rest,
and her example operating for the benefit of mankind, every nation in
Europe would eventually have founded a government over which the will
of the people would have had a powerful control. His improper conduct,
however, has checked the salutary progress of principle; but the
object is fixed in the eye of nations, and they will press to its
accomplishment, and to the general amelioration of the condition of
man. What a germ have the freemen of the United States planted, and
how faithfully should the